The artists depicted in this double portrait – Lucian Freud to the left and Frank Auerbach to the right – Francis Bacon had met at the Colony Room, a club in London. They are half-reclining, each in a chaise longue, with their lower bodies exposed. In an armchair facing Auerbach, another figure is partially visible – perhaps Bacon himself. Although the models were his close friends, Bacon preferred to paint their portraits from photographs. He collected reproductions of masterpieces, along with photographs and medical encyclopaedias.Together with classics from cinematic history and childhood memories, this image bank was essential to his artistic practice.